Skills – Es­sen­tial tips

Whistler, words will never do jus­tice to one of the best moun­tain bike parks in the world. It’s one of those lo­ca­tions that every moun­tain biker needs to visit at least once in their lives. With a wide range of trails that fit every skill in the book, Whistler at­tracts thou­sands of moun­tain bik­ing en­thu­si­asts from all around the world, of­fer­ing an ex­pe­ri­ence that no other lo­ca­tion can com­pare. In the heart of Bri­tish Columbia’s Coast Range, Whistler's rid­ing cul­ture and laid-back life­style of­fers some of wildest and well-known bike park lines but has also been on the front line on de­vel­op­ing new en­duro trails, that go from ex­plor­ing the high alpine to just rid­ing in the pine forests. What you’ve heard is true, it can get busy in sum­mer and lift lines tend to ex­tend for a cou­ple of hun­dred me­tres but there’s al­ways enough space and room to be away from all that and ex­plore what the park has to of­fer. While a ticket buys you all the ver­ti­cal steep­ness that your body can han­dle, it also gives you ac­cess to ex­plore other lo­ca­tions that are still un­der the radar. The va­ri­ety of trails, lines and types of ter­rain is mind-blow­ing and you re­ally have to stay a cou­ple days ex­tra or re­turn next year for more.

Once you ar­rive to Whistler, your first in­stinct will be to head straight up and shred down as fast as pos­si­ble. You’ll then un­der­stand that it’s rough, it’s long, it’s steep and your win­ter train­ing wasn’t enough to pre­pare you for this. Nev­er­the­less, the amount of rid­ing you can do will over­come the pain. Start slow and build